As Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood slipped away from Atlanta and Gen. Sherman torched the houses of leading Confederates back in 1864, you'd think the Grant Mansion would be at the top of the list of houses to burn....

Just as it seemed hopeless for the Grant Mansion and that the estate was destined to be destroyed only 10 years after it
was built, a Union forager found an apron with what appeared to be a
Masonic symbol on it in the house, according to legend. Sherman, who had
ordered all places with Mason symbols to be spared, relented in his
order, leaving this mansion one of the only pre-Civil War homes left
standing in Atlanta.